- FL: AG uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT as prop in reelection campaign
Source: NBC News
“Florida’s attorney general said his office was issuing subpoenas to OpenAI on Tuesday morning, seeking information about how the leading AI company approaches user threats of harm to themselves and to others. The subpoenas are part of a new criminal investigation into the company, James Uthmeier said in a press conference. The actions are an escalation from his previously announced probe of the artificial intelligence company, which he said will continue as a civil investigation alongside the newly announced criminal investigation. On April 9, Uthmeier said he would launch an investigation into OpenAI and its ChatGPT tool over national security and safety concerns. Among other concerns, he is investigating whether ChatGPT provided any planning assistance to the alleged gunman in the Florida State University mass shooting that left two people dead in April last year.” (04/21/26)
- Citing Child Cancer Risk, Lawsuit Targets Trump EPA Over Glyphosate
Source: Common Dreams
“Just days before the US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments related to glyphosate’s health risks, the Environmental Working Group on Tuesday sued the Trump administration for unlawfully delaying its response to an EWG petition seeking stronger restrictions on ‘the most widely used herbicide in the United States and globally.’ The filing at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit calls out the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to act on evidence that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, ‘is exposing infants and young children to harmful levels through everyday foods.’ EWG and its co-petitioners filed a formal administrative petition under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 2018 …. They want the EPA to revoke or modify the glyphosate policy for oats, so it’s stricter, and restrict its use as a pre-harvest drying agent.” (04/21/26)
- NY: Regime sues Coinbase, Gemini Titan over prediction markets
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“New York’s attorney general sued Coinbase Financial Markets and Gemini Titan on Tuesday, claiming their prediction markets violate state laws against illegal gambling. In complaints filed in a state court in Manhattan, Attorney General Letitia James said Coinbase and Gemini failed to obtain New York State Gaming Commission licenses to operate their markets, where people trade based on the predicted outcomes of events such as sports and elections. James said Coinbase’s and Gemini’s so-called event contracts are ‘quintessentially gambling’ because event outcomes are outside bettors’ control or amount to games of chance. She also objected to Coinbase and Gemini letting 18- to 20-year-olds use their platforms, despite a state law setting a minimum age of 21 for mobile sports betting.” (04/21/26)
- NASA shuts off Voyager 1 instrument to save power 15 billion miles from Earth
Source: Fox News
“NASA shut down one of Voyager 1’s science instruments to conserve dwindling power and keep the nearly 49-year-old spacecraft operating as it continues its journey through interstellar space more than 15 billion miles from Earth. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California sent commands Friday to turn off Voyager 1’s Low-Energy Charged Particles (LECP) experiment, a long-running instrument that has operated almost continuously since the spacecraft launched in 1977. The move comes as the nuclear-powered probe loses about 4 watts of power each year, and mission managers work to stretch its remaining lifespan. ‘While shutting down a science instrument is not anybody’s preference, it is the best option available,’ Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at JPL, said in a statement.” (04/21/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/science/nasa-shuts-voyager-1-instrument-save-power-15b-miles-earth
- MN: Walz rolls out “Small Town PAC” to rebuild Democrats’ rural bench
Source: Minnesota Star Tribune
“Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is launching his next political endeavor: a federal political action committee that will seek to recruit and support Democrats in rural communities nationwide. Walz announced the creation of the Small Town PAC on Monday, April 20, saying he wants to help build a new pipeline of candidates rooted in the places Democrats have struggled to win in recent years. … Walz, who has served two terms as governor and was the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2024, told the Minnesota Star Tribune last month that he planned to play an active role in this year’s midterm elections, particularly in governors’ races. He serves as finance chair of the Democratic Governors Association. But Walz faces a harsh political reality as he begins his new venture: His approval rating has plummeted in greater Minnesota in recent years.” (04/20/26)
- Trump’s regime change fantasies never stood a chance
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Nancy Gallagher, Clay Ramsay, & Samuel Hickey“Nobody should be surprised that the war launched on February 28 did not accelerate anti-government protests in Iran. The survey we fielded soon after the Twelve-Day War showed signs it had a rally-around-the-flag effect. Trump also had pre-war warnings from the intelligence community that his assumptions about the Iranian public’s response were flawed. After weeks of bombing, Reuters reported that U.S. intelligence saw no imminent regime collapse. CISSM’s polling consistently finds real discontent in Iran. But Iranian discontent is not America’s to command. The favorable minority in our polling is more outward-looking, more skeptical of the domestic order, more favorable toward American people, and more interested in diplomacy than the rest of the public. But it is not a regime-change base waiting for Washington’s signal.” (04/21/26)
- Instead of Ending the DHS “Shutdown,” Make It Real … and Permanent
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“No hijackings. No bombings. No ‘national security’ related hostage situations. Just life, as usual, minus paying out big bucks for a useless bureaucracy that we got along just fine without from 1789 through 2002 … and can clearly get along just fine without now. Even starting a war with Iran wasn’t enough to give DHS anything visibly productive to do. Political and media hysteria over supposed ‘Iranian sleeper cells’ quickly dissipated after it turned out that those cells either don’t exist or didn’t set their alarm clocks. Any sane policy discussion, at this point, should center around how quickly DHS can be defunded permanently and abolished entirely.” (04/21/26)
- The Mindless Hawkishness of the Trump Administration
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison“Escalation is unfortunately quite likely because the president and his allies don’t understand how to do anything else. Whenever they encounter resistance, they assume that the answer is always more pressure, more threats, more attacks. It never occurs to them that they are destroying any incentive that the Iranians might have to compromise. Like every mindless hawk before them, they believe that they will win if they just inflict more pain. They can’t fathom that other nations might value their dignity and independence highly enough that surrender is not an option. It is the same morally and stategically bankrupt approach that has failed the U.S. many times before, and it will fail again here.” (04/21/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-mindless-hawkishness-of-the-trump
- The Strongman Era Has Peaked
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt“[T]he stunning electoral defeat of Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary raises the question: Has the market for autocratic strongmen peaked? One might see this event as an isolated incident, because Hungary is a small country (with a total population only slightly larger than New York City) and because every nation has its own peculiar political dynamics. Orban’s defeat stemmed from deep dissatisfaction with the consequences of his rule, however, and there are reasons to think that today’s strongmen — and yes, they are all men — are facing a rockier future for much the same reason. Most of them have done a poor job of governing, and for reasons that highlight the limitations of letting a single strong leader determine national policy.” (04/21/26)
- The Proposed FISA “Warrant Requirement” Isn’t a Warrant Requirement
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“[US House leadership] spent nearly all of Wednesday and Thursday pressuring reform-minded Republicans to get in line on an amended [FISA renewal] bill that would include a ‘warrant requirement.’ The thing is, the amended bill didn’t really include a warrant requirement. The amendment says two main things. First, it says the government can’t use Section 702 to intentionally target the communications of a U.S. person. If the government wants to surveil an American directly, it has to use the legal authorities that already exist for that purpose, such as traditional FISA surveillance or a criminal warrant supported by probable cause. That’s not reform; that’s literally current law, which already says that the government cannot target U.S. persons under 702 and must use existing authorities under Title I of FISA or traditional criminal warrants if it wants to surveil an American directly.” (04/21/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/the-proposed-fisa-warrant-requirement
- Pointers for restoring trust in higher education
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“For at least a decade, Americans have wrestled with growing questions and doubts about their institutions of higher education and the value of a traditional four-year degree. The declining confidence has been driven by concerns over escalating costs and growing student indebtedness, uneven job prospects, and on-campus political polarization. These concerns have fed into calls by the current administration for changes to accreditation procedures and transparency in admissions processes, especially among elite institutions. There are indications, however, that the downward trend in Americans’ trust in higher education and its outcomes is not irreversible.” (04/20/26)
- Greece’s 19th Century Currant Crisis: A Warning Against “Temporary” Government Support
Source: The Daily Economy
by Daniel J Smith“In 1895, Greek journalist Vlasis Gavriilidis traveled to Cambridge University seeking advice from three leading economists — Alfred Marshall, Henry Sidgwick, and John Neville Keynes — on the most urgent economic problem facing his country: a collapsing market for currants (Corinthian raisins), which then accounted for roughly half of all Greek exports. \Overproduction, fueled by earlier government policies and a temporary export boom, threatened widespread rural unemployment and poverty. The economists offered divided counsel. That ambiguity gave organized currant growers the opening they needed to lobby successfully for a price-support system — a ‘temporary’ intervention that promised stable incomes for growers while shifting costs onto taxpayers and distorting the broader economy. … The measure was anything but temporary.” (04/21/26)
- A Justice in Full
Source: Law & Liberty
by Mark Pulliam“Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. has served on the US Supreme Court for 20 years, but has never gotten the attention — or credit — he deserves. … Alito’s lack of public recognition is about to change. Mollie Hemingway, well-known center-right journalist and best-selling co-author of an excellent account of the tortuous confirmation process inflicted on Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, Justice on Trial, has written the first biography of Alito, entitled Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution.” (04/21/26)
- “You Dirty ORANGE Maniac! You Blew It All Up! Damn You to Hell!”
Source: TomDispatch
by Tom Engelhardt“When he’s on full blast, Donald Trump (not so long ago the ‘drill, baby, drill’ candidate for president) is distinctly a furnace. And he seems intent on turning this planet, our only world, into a version of the same. But here’s the strange thing, when it comes to almost anything — from Iran to suddenly firing two key women, Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem, in his government (but certainly not the no-less-chaotic men) — there’s no minute, it seems, when he’s not flipping himself on his head and then spinning or stumbling or catapulting off in a new direction. There’s only one exception I’ve noticed and, all too sadly, that’s climate change, where everything he does — every single thing — is guaranteed to be a disaster for our children and grandchildren.” (04/21/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/you-dirty-orange-maniac-you-blew-it-all-up-damn-you-to-hell/
- The AOC-Schiff Thesis
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“I wonder how many others were amused, as I was last week, to hear Senator Adam Schiff praise members of his party for the ouster of his fellow Californian and Democrat, Rep. Eric Swallwell, from Congress. The tale, as told on this website on Sunday, is that Swallwell — one of Schiff’s closest colleagues pushing the Russiagate gambit against the first Trump administration — was pressured to resign over the massive amount of complaints against him for sexual harassment and other unwanted sexual advances. There is even an accusation of rape. Also resigning was a Republican from Texas, Tony Gonzalez, for similar reasons. Schiff — who claimed to be ‘sickened’ and ‘aghast’ at the accusations and what Swallwell ‘has done’ — followed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in scorning the Republicans for postponing dealing with the Gonzalez problem.” (04/21/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/04/21/the-aoc-schiff-thesis/
- Dear Mr. President, Please Stop Giving Special Access to the Left-Wing [sic] Press
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“Remember when the leftist [sic] media was upset about Benjamin Netanyahu being in the Situation Room with President Trump? ‘How dare he?’ they cried as they clutched their pearls. Well, at least Israel is an ally [sic] of the United States, whereas the media is not, and the media, as horrifying as it is, is only made worse by the President talking to them. Please, Mr. President, stop giving access to these people.” (04/21/26)
- When Legal Methods Become Rhetoric
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Marcos Giansante“In well-ordered legal traditions, disagreement about outcomes is expected. Disagreement about methods is tolerable. But the abandonment of method altogether marks a deeper rupture, one that transforms law from a system of constraint into an instrument of will. Contemporary Brazilian jurisprudence increasingly reveals such a rupture. The problem is often framed as a conflict between legal theories, or as the natural evolution of constitutional interpretation. Yet this framing misidentifies the phenomenon. What is at stake is not the triumph of one doctrine over another, but the quiet dissolution of the very structures that once constrained judicial power.” (04/21/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/when-legal-methods-become-rhetoric
- Biden Official: Biden Was Preparing To Bomb Iran If Re-Elected
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Former senior Biden advisor Amos Hochstein said during an interview on Sunday that the Biden administration had been preparing to bomb Iran if they had won re-election in 2024. Hochstein was asked by Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan, ‘In July 2024 Secretary Blinken claimed Iran was one or two weeks away from having enough fissile material breakout capacity to eventually make a weapon if Iran had decided to do so. There were indirect negotiations that the Biden administration did, but it went nowhere. So when President Trump argues that he did what no other president would, is it just simply that the bill was coming due and it fell on his watch?'” (04/21/26)
- Focus on the Sixth Amendment
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Rachel Chiu“The Confrontation Clause bars certain out-of-court statements when the witness does not testify at trial and there is no opportunity for cross-examination. Although there are many situations in which different forms of out-of-court statements may be admissible, the circumstances triggering the Confrontation Clause often involve evidence that is high-stakes and accusatory. In these specific cases, a defendant’s freedom is on the line, and the statements in question can have a disproportionate and decisive impact in the absence of cross-examination. Compared to other criminal justice topics such as qualified immunity and civil asset forfeiture, this issue receives far less attention, even though the risk to a defendant’s life, personal liberty, and property is great. The erosion of the Confrontation Clause deserves scrutiny, and the Supreme Court has recently signaled possible intervention to address the problem.” (04/21/26)
- Fallacies Forthcoming: Why Mazzucato’s Latest Is Already Outdated
Source: The Daily Economy
by Per Bylund“Before it even hits shelves, Mariana Mazzucato’s newest book recycles ideas that economists have already dismantled.” (04/21/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/fallacies-forthcoming-why-mazzucatos-latest-is-already-outdated/
- Trump’s Memory Loss
Source: The American Spectator
by Lloyd Billingsley“With support from President Trump, Congress passed a bill to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) through April 30. The president seems to have forgotten FISA’s power to harm innocents, override the judiciary, and even threaten the executive branch. That invites a look back at how it all started.” (04/21/26)
- The COVID Reckoning Doesn’t Go Far Enough
Source: Reason
“Real medical freedom will require something greater than replacing the public health establishment: ending the FDA’s monopoly.” (04/21/26)
https://reason.com/video/2026/04/21/the-covid-reckoning-doesnt-go-far-enough/
- Michele McPhee on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Michele McPhee on the Unanswered Questions about the Boston Marathon Bombing and Why They Still Matter.” (04/21/26)
- Show-Me Institute Podcast, 04/21/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“How to Think About Persuasion in Public Policy with Josh Bandoch.” (04/21/26)
- Law & Liberty Podcast, 04/21/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“Conservatism’s Lamentable Drift.” (04/21/26)
https://lawliberty.org/podcast/conservatisms-lamentable-drift/
- Capital Record, episode 295
Source: National Review
“Legal Reform as the Supply-Side Issue of Our Day.” (04/21/26)
- Rising, 04/21/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on Amir Makled, a progressive who’s been accused of antisemitism, winning an election to be on the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents.” (04/21/26)
- Trump Watch, 04/21/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Weirdness and Destructiveness of the U.S. Blockade on Iran.” (04/21/26)
- Diplomacy or Escalation? The Iran War at a Crossroads
Source: Drop Site News
“The Iranian analyst Hassan Ahmadian speaks with Jeremy Scahill about Iran’s strategy, a potential deal, and how decisions are being made in Tehran.” (04/21/26)
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-war-trump-diplomacy-escalation-hassan-ahmadian